Wasn’t This a Night Game

Betrayal (Revised)

Evening.

Tuidel summoned those within the magic tower who sided with her faction.

“I have a confession to make.”

A faction wasn’t really anything special.

If they were researching and ran into a problem they couldn’t solve, Tuidel would say she’d take care of it, then bring it to Erpa.

Then Erpa would miraculously solve the problem, and that solution would become Tuidel’s accomplishment, which she would bestow upon the wizards and witches.

The wizards and witches mistakenly believed Erpa’s genius-level problem-solving ability was Tuidel’s own, clinging to her side, and *that* was the result of this very gathering.

“An abomination. A worshiper of an evil god is hiding in my own lab.”

The mages and witches of the Tyudel faction, gathering to hear what this was all about, burst into laughter at the curt words Tyudel threw out.

“What kind of joke is that, Tyudel?”

At that, Tyudel wordlessly drew her wand and aimed it at her own head, then projected a portion of her memories into the air for all to see.

Erpa’s image, toiling in the lab, was laid bare before the entire faction.

Every mage and witch held their breath.

Multiple arms.

Eyeballs clustered thickly on the left side of her face.

An Abomination.

The very figure the White Order, so zealous in their demon hunts and god-slaying, would be driven mad to capture – a bringer of calamity.

“Wh-what is that!! Why, that’s!!”

“What! Who is that! Who is that person?”

As everyone shrieked in horror, Tyudel smirked.

“What’s wrong, you all? You’ve been so impressed all this time, watching how breakthroughs just kept happening in your research, right? Well, *that’s* the ingenious mind behind those solutions. You’ve all unknowingly been receiving help from a worshiper of evil gods.”

Tyudel cackled.

“What are you going to do? If this comes out, you lot. You’ll *all* be summoned by the White Order and put on trial for worshiping evil gods, you know? Going this way, you’re all definitely screwed.”

“Wh-what!!”

“What are you trying to say!! Why are you doing this!!”

“What’s this suddenly! Why are you doing this to us!! There was no talk of this!!”

“You crazy b*tch!!”

Watching the screams erupt and the vehement reactions, Tyudel smiled.

“Help me out here. This b*tch needs to disappear. Turns out, a worshipper of the Foul Gods has been secretly backing our research all this time. If that comes out, we’re screwed, right?”

The sound of dry swallowing rippled through the gathered mages and witches at Tydell’s words.

Their gazes darted back and forth, a visible tremor of unease, but in the end…

The choice they could make was already carved in stone.

“……..What’s the plan?”

“This b*tch. That many-eyed freakshow has turned. Shown her true colors, you might say. Now she’s claiming that since she helped our research all along, we owe her by helping usher in some Foul God. I intend to kill her before that happens.”

Tydell offered a peculiar smile.

“The Abomination still trusts me. I’ll pretend to continue to win her favor, get her drinking. In that booze…I’ll slip a magic suppressant and an anesthetic. Something strong. She likely won’t suspect a thing, eh? And the moment she’s weakened…” He snapped his fingers. “…taken care of.”

Murder.

But a thing that had to be done to survive.

The faction’s mages and witches made faces like they’d tasted something foul.

It was about condoning indirect murder, but from the start, they didn’t have a choice anyway.

“What then?”

“We need to secure all the files from the secret laboratory and squirrel them away. And get rid of the evidence and body other than those files. Do that, and we can bury the fact that we ever had a deal with the Abomination. While keeping the gains the Abomination’s research produced.”

Tydell grinned.

But asked in a profoundly threatening voice.

“No one wants to get kicked out of the Magic Tower, right? Right? This is the Mars Tower branch, after all. You don’t want your careers ruined. You don’t. Right?”

Everyone lowered their heads.

It was the truth.

Tydell knew their minds too damned well.

“What do we have to do?”

They wouldn’t be able to refuse.

Tythel explained, her voice smooth and persuasive, like a lure.

“We need potent magic suppressants and anesthetics. And the disposal of evidence and bodies. People to secure the laboratory’s data. I can’t manage it alone. I’ll handle the hardest part, dealing with the Abomination, so you lot need to take care of the rest.”

At her words, the mages and witches started glancing at each other, then, with trembling faces, nodded.

Tythel smiled, a joyous thing, at the sight.

Now they were all in the same boat.

Escape was impossible.

*

A day had passed since Tythel bolted.

Erpa was growing anxious, Tythel hadn’t returned.

Could she really be planning to reveal her identity?

Was she thinking of doing something foolish?

Why wasn’t she back?

Pacing nervously around the room, Erpa suddenly heard the sound of the door being opened by a key and hurriedly went to hide behind the sofa, only to see Tythel entering, and she emerged from behind the sofa, relieved.

“Sorry. I’m late.”

Tythel said it with her usual languid tone.

In her hand, she held a bottle of wine.

The very brand of port Erpa liked and they often drank.

“Fancy a drink, after all this time?”

A flicker of apology dances in her expression.

Erpa studies Tyudel for a breath, then nods, settling down across from her.

Wordlessly, the two witches fill their glasses and begin to drink.

“I’m sorry.”

The silence, brief as it was, is broken by Tyudel.

“I misjudged things. I didn’t truly grasp your pain, your trauma. It’s just… seeing a student I taught surpass me, it made me feel rushed.”

Erpa feels a tension she hadn’t realized was there, suddenly release.

She’s quiet for a moment, then a wry chuckle escapes her.

“Guess I did pick things up a little *too* fast.”

“Learned the whole alphabet in a month, didn’t you? Never thought you’d just… memorize the dictionary whole.”

“Live in the mountains, what else is there to do? The dictionary was… engaging.”

“Basic magic, faster than anyone else, too.”

“It just… made sense.”

“You were a true prodigy, Erpa. Maybe that’s why… I started to feel pathetic, relying on you so much. I got desperate, trying to catch up. It just… came out twisted, somehow. I didn’t consider your feelings. I messed up. I’m sorry, Erpa.”

At those words, Erpa pours another shot into her glass and downs it in one go.

“Thank you for apologizing, Tyudel. I apologize too. For shouting at you. I just… couldn’t accept the idea of forcing my kind of suffering on others.”

Erpa stares down at herself, silently.

Four arms.

So many eyes.

Even to herself, a sight both wretched and foul.

But she wouldn’t yield to this body.

Sometime, she knew not when, but sometime, she *would* find a way to fix it.

“I *will* heal myself. And then, maybe I’ll be able to handle even more incredible and outstanding magical gear than now, right?”

“Yes. I suppose so. Erpa.”

“Then I’ll research ways to boost your magical abilities too. You can become just as great a witch as I am. Instead of inhumane experiments, and all those unlawful, nasty methods. Let’s find a much better way, Tydell.”

Erpa’s face colored as she spoke.

More than just colored, it started to become excessively, intensely red, and soon, Erpa began to sway.

Seemed the powerful anesthetic in the alcohol was taking hold.

Along with the magic suppressor.

“You too, surely, like me…a brilliant witch…why…my body…”

Erpa faltered, then collapsed face-first onto the table.

Her eyes, half-closed, were now slowly filling with surprise and bewilderment.

“This…why…”

Erpa mumbled, slurring her words.

Tydell slowly rose from her seat and approached the prone Erpa.

And stroking her hair, carefully drew a wand from within her robes.

With a light flick of the wand, a signal, witches and wizards belonging to the faction, who had been waiting, cautiously entered the house and moved towards Erpa’s secret laboratory.

Seeing that, Tydell smiled thinly.

“A kind offer, but I’ll have to decline. You see, I don’t like you.”

From Twydel’s mouth, slowly.

A voice thick with hatred and jealousy began to spill out.

“You’ll raise my magical level. A favor you deign to bestow, is it? Which means I live by your side, constantly. Feeling inferior, right? I refuse, Erpa. I can’t stand to see you prancing around me, all high and mighty.”

Twydel giggles.

Magic gathers at the tip of her wand.

“I have a little trouble tolerating someone better than me, you see. Especially when that someone is actively hindering my progress and even threatening me. So, Erpa.”

Twydel brings out the laughter she had hidden deepest within her for the first time.

“Farewell. I’ll make good use of what you leave behind.”

At that moment, just as a severing spell is fired from the wand tip toward Erpa’s neck.

The magic aimed at Erpa’s neck refracts, bouncing off in the wrong direction entirely.

With a *shkkk* sound, the chair behind her is sliced clean through.

The sorcerers and witches of Twydel’s faction, who had been collecting data inside the lab, realize something has gone wrong at that sound and immediately teleport away, every last one of them.

“What!……”

Twydel, aghast at the disloyal betrayal, watches Erpa pull out her wand and stand.

Her hand holding the wand trembled like a seizure patient’s, whether it was due to the magic suppressant or the anesthetic, preventing her magic from working properly, but Erpa was still Erpa nonetheless.

“You!…….to me……Twydel!!”

Erpa shouts, staggering.

Astonishment and fury in her eyes.

And a profound grief gathering.

“How could you!…….to me!!”

“Fucking shit!!”

Tuedel unleashes a barrage of magic.

Her house explodes outward.

But she didn’t give a damn.

Things being like this, she had to kill her, fast, no matter what.

But Erpa didn’t die easy.

She waved her wand, simply defending against Tuedel’s magic, interfering and blasting it away to who-knows-where as she resisted.

Tuedel’s eyes widened seeing her, even under the influence of a tranquilizer and mana suppressant, pushing her back.

“Wh, what the!”

A new trick.

There was no way magic of that caliber could be coming out, not with a mana suppressant in her system.

She was clearly using some technique that allowed her to cast ridiculously huge magic, even with a small amount of mana.

But Tuedel had never even heard of such a technique, never witnessed it.

The meaning was simple.

She was hiding something.

“You b*tch!!”

The thought of being played sent Tuedel’s wand moving faster.

But like a tug-of-war, the two remained locked in a tense stalemate.

And during that stalemate…

The neighbors, hearing the earth-shattering noise, began to trickle out, one by one.

Ruined.

The factions betrayed him, scurrying away like cockroaches, and the plan to quietly assassinate her, evidence and corpse disposed of together, had already crumbled.

Too many witnesses.

And of course, Erfa was now…

Not bothering to hide her left face, sprouting four arms and eyes clustered like barnacles.

A misstep and Erfa could win this fight. That possibility, it definitely existed.

Tüdel calculated fast.

A way to ruin only Erfa, unilaterally, without suffering any damage himself.

A way to make sure nobody believed anything Erfa said about him later.

There was one way to summon reinforcements, right now.

“Abomination!! Worshipper of dark gods!! The Disaster is trying to kill me!! Quick!! Someone call the White Order!!”

Tüdel, with lungs like bellows, began to scream at the gawking onlookers.